I got to play one at Manny's in NYC a few months back, through an SM500/Goliath III rig (not my favorite). I still liked the tone. It's versatile: the new preamps that they've been putting in since '98 or so are fabulous, although the nearly nonexistent center detents are a bit irritating. The sound is thoroughly modern, though. I think it'd cut just about any gig except metal. It would be ideal for fusion, funk, math-rock, Prog, and such, and could definitely be tweaked to be a massive dub machine.

The neck might not be to everyone's liking: "aircraft carrier" is an apt metaphor. It's pleasantly thick, though, but if you have small hands, forget it.

Balance is decent. The ash body is very heavy. Get a good strap.

If I were in the market for a wide-spaced 6, this would be it. If you're coming straight from 4 and you don't have big hands, you might want to look elsewhere.

yeah i would have to agree with pete, if you are used to the four then trb6 is gonna feel real wide for a while. Mind you any 6 is wide compared to a four. They are a real nice bass though imho. Not real instant character when you plug in but very clean and maleable sound. could be used for absolutely anything. what you put in with your fingers is what you get out.

No, no slapping here, thanks. In this part of England it's still, thankfully, illegal.

I've got pretty big hands, so I don't think the spacing will be a problem, but am wondering about the sound of the thing - some of you have said it's a modern sound - would it be out of place in a live rock/blues covers situation? It's one of my regular gigs, and I currently play a Jazz bass with that band - would the sound of the Yamaha fit in without a lot of tweaking?

: the new preamps that they've been putting in since '98 or so are fabulous,

(end quote)

So is there a way of knowing whether a particular model is pre- or post-98? From what I understand from the Yamaha site, the earlier models were all 34" scale and the later ones 35" - would this be the point at which the preamps were also improved? Indeed, was this the point at which "TRB6" changed to "TRB6II", or are there TRB6IIs about with the older design?

The reason for this is that I've been offered a TRB6II which has an uncertain history, and want to make sure that the one I'll be looking at tonight is the newest version.